Image: Scene break ornament. End Description.

Phoebe smoothed a poster up along the wall, pressing a thumbtack into the final loose corner. She stepped back and eyed her work to make sure it wasn’t too crooked. Satisfied, she grabbed another poster from her luggage and unrolled it. With Kirk gone the guest room officially belonged to her again, and getting to decorate it brought a sense of finality. For better or worse.

Image: Phoebe scrutinizes a poster. The poster shows a pitiful kitten holding onto a tree branch, with the text ‘Hang in there!’ End description.

Asmeret—this had originally been their childhood bedroom—said any left-behind furniture was hers to use. Phoebe hadn’t brought enough to fully decorate the space and the old bookshelf was bare for now, but her laptop had found a home on the desk. Beside it she placed a mug and filled it with a few pens she’d probably never use.

The closet and dressers were ready for her clothes, save for a few old things of Asmeret’s. School reports, interesting rocks, and a tattered guide to birds of the southeast. Phoebe consolidated all of that into a single drawer.

Getting her stuff back from Stern College for Successful Young Women had been much less of a hassle than she’d anticipated. Julia pulled up in front of the freshman dorms and Phoebe walked into an office full of trunks, suitcases, and packages waiting for other late arrivals. She showed the resident assistant behind the desk her ID, and suddenly her belongings were back in her custody.

Julia and Cat helped her load everything into the car’s spacious trunk and nobody paid them much attention, save for people coming up to pet Yuli. Students milling around in-between classes didn’t care that Phoebe was taking her luggage out of the dorm. Within 20 minutes, Julia was pulling back onto the road.

Image: Phoebe, Julia, Yuli, and Cat are parked in front of a building at Stern’s, loading up Julia’s car with luggage. Phoebe is putting a duffel bag into the trunk and smiling at Cat. who is carrying another bag. Julia is talking to two woman students, one with a skink aspect and one with a bat aspect. The former is letting Yuli sniff her hand. End description.



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12.25.2024
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All the reindeer worked very hard to bring you this update. Plus a cat, CK, who suggested what Phoebe's poster should be.
If you’re feeling charitable, consider buying a late gift for a child or young adult in foster care or helping to forgive someone’s medical debt.